Posts Tagged ‘observation’

Communications are the foundation for humans to live together in harmony. Most of us would benefit from improving our communications skills. This should come as no surprise: Millions of teachers, parents, and supervisors emphasize this every day. Yet it seems like our communications skills are not improving. School-age children and young adults, aspiring workers, and even mature professionals seem disinterested in their communications skills. Plenty of good stuff is available to teach people who are motivated to learn. Therein lies the problem: lack of motivation. My contention is that people who really enjoy the English language are much more motivated to improve.

English is a wonderfully diverse language. If you ask fifty different people to describe an object, an event, or an idea, you will get fifty different perspectives, each articulated with distinct words and style. There are no absolutes—no best writer, best speaker, best style—and no best words. However, there are patterns and principles of English usage that are generally persuasive and misusage patterns that are generally ineffective.